A research paper by Neil Johnson, Michael Spagat, et al, provides the cover story for the latest issue of Nature. The blurb from Nature which accompanys the cover says: “Many seemingly random or chaotic human activities have been found to exhibit universal statistical patterns. Neil Johnson and colleagues use detailed data sets from conflicts, including those in Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia, to show that insurgent wars fit into this category, sharing common patterns with each other and also with global terrorism.”

The paper’s authors note that their model’s similarity to financial market models “provides a surprising link between violent and non-violent forms of human behaviour”.